Candy Cranks

The man himself

Stefan with his bubble ensemble

Jay in his Best Dressed Luigi outfit and bike

Princess Peaches x 2

Lee, Sohpie, B (first girl on points), Oi

002 and Jewlz

Riders before the race

Mario impersonator

I had a great time at the Super Mario Track race on Saturday night, the moon was full, the weather was warm and Em and I were good to go in our matching Princess Peaches outfits. We rocked up to the usual haunt, The Cricketers in Surry Hills with Jay (Em’s boyfriend) who had the most superb Luigi costume and car/bike combo I’ve ever seen. Not surprisingly he won Best Dressed.

After much chat and bike perving Lewis (The Ringleader) came out with the manifesto in hand. After a couple of minutes Em had the route, check points and strategy sussed, she had her “I’m in the mood to kick some arse” Tiara on and I had a feeling the arse about to be kicked was mine.

Lewis gave the green light and it was game on, I looked around to find Em and she was already 10 metres up the hill and on a mission, “Shit!” I’d better get my pink sparkly skirt into gear. First stop, Harry’s Café De Wheels, via Kings Cross (Sydney’s red light district). I thought it may be interesting riding through that part of town dressed as we were, but all Em and I heard were yells of encouragement “Tutu! I love you!” “Go Pinkie!”

Next stop York St, via half a dozen flights of stairs that I’d much rather forget about and through The Domain avoiding concert goers on the footpath. Oops, “Sorry!” I got too close to the back of another rider and ended up kissing his back wheel.

Onto Wharf 10  at the harbours edge, this is where I lost Em, she was out of sight and I made the mistake of following another rider who was more lost than me. Quick call to Em, some general directions and we were back on track, up the hill to Broadway. Em was in fine form, she was up those hills like the Energizer Bunny, she was pushing me to my limits and I realised this wasn’t going to be my usual alley cat cruise around the city dropping into checkpoints to socialise and have shots of Vodka. After receiving lipstick kisses from the Three Point Turnz girls we were off to Hyde Park to pick up the secret checkpoint manifesto.

We were greeted by Susan who offered up a lucky dip that in my case was not so lucky, I pulled a ghost blooper which resulted in a shot of rum, yech. Collected the manifesto and away to the secret checkpoint to find the boys, once there we partook in a game of foot down to get our manifestos signed.

We were on the home stretch, Moore Park, Em was off in a puff of pink and blue. Screaming through the city, like horses that know they’re on their way back to the stables after a long ride. “Where is everyone?” It’s a decent sized park with not much light and a few hills. I was looking forward to flopping my ridiculously hot and sweaty body onto the hopefully cool grass when a child’s bike was thrust before me. One more checkpoint to complete, ride the kid’s bike around the 3 grassy hills, back onto the path and you’re done.

After a gathering and presentation on the grass we all made it back to The Cricketers for some drinks and tales of accidents and near misses. I have to say I enjoyed this alley cat the most out of all of the ones I ‘competed’ in. I don’t know whether it was the silly outfit or the full moon or whether it was because it’s the first time I’ve actually competed, and that was only because I was chasing Em. I’ve never been to an alley cat that has recognised female winners as well as male winners so maybe having that extra recognition made it seem more worthwhile competing. There were more girls than I’d seen before turn up to this one which was great, about 8 all up. B was the first girl in points and Em and I were the first girls across the line, the results show Emily + Meg tied but Emily definitely won, she totally kicked my arse and I’m happy for it!!

Check out Em’s version of the night here.

Some more pics here.

And a big thanks to Lewis and Le Pista for organising the event.